Spanish Course Descriptions: 2009/2010

To view course descriptions simply click on a course number or scroll down.
For classes with a language focus (101-311), see the UO class schedule.

Only courses with active links will be offered during the 2009/2010 academic year

* There may be more than one course with this course number offered during the same term*
(ex: there are 5 different sections of SPAN 407 offered during the Fall 2009 term)

FALL 2009

SPAN 150: The Spanish-speaking world, Dialects of Spanish-- Davis
Spanish is the official language of Spain and over twenty American countries, and it is the de facto second language of the United States. Even those with a superficial knowledge of Spanish know that there are vast geographical and social differences in the language. In this class we will explore variation in the Spanish language, focusing on the historical sources of modern-day dialects, the lexical and grammatical features that distinguish them, the social factors that determine current usage, and the future of the language in the different contexts where it is used.   

Objectives: Students will be able to…
--identify places, peoples, historical, cultural and linguistic influences (geography linguistics interface)
--identify the phonetic, lexical, and syntactic features that distinguish major dialects of Spanish
--identify the linguistic and cultural stereotypes associated with English and Spanish dialects
--recognize their own visceral reactions to specific language features
--recognize the research faculty in the Spanish sector of Romance Languages, their countries of origin, and specialty areas     return to course list

SPAN 316: Survey of Peninsular Spanish Literature – Wacks
Introduction to major themes and ideas from the medieval period to 1800 through the reading of representative texts.     return to course list

SPAN 319: Survey in Spanish/American Literature - Garcia Caro
Esta visión panorámica desde la independencia hasta nuestros días trata de reconocer y estudiar temas constantes de la literatura hispana contemporánea, como los conflictos sociales o la (inter)dependencia cultural entre centro y periferia, y pautas históricas, como la explotación social y económica en el continente y la problemática relación entre creador y sociedad, entre el texto y el tejido social. Las interpretaciones y discusiones de las diferentes lecturas de cada semana girarán en torno a estos temas amplios, y buscarán que el estudiante desarrolle al mismo tiempo una visión detallada tanto de las estrategias creativas, lingüísticas o textuales como del tejido social: el contexto histórico y geopolítico en el que surge cada texto.     return to course list

SPAN 407: Seminar: Historias/Historias Vitales—May
This seminar will expose the student to a rich array of masters of the short story from Spain as well as curious biographies collected by one of the country's most engaging contemporary novelists.     return to course list

SPAN 407: Gender, Ethnicity, and Food in Mexico - Taylor
In this course we will examine how the international movement for food sovereignty as it is articulated by Mexican intellectuals, activists and campesinos is transforming the politics of ethnic, gender and national identity. Food sovereignty is defined by the Vía Campesina as the organization of “food production and consumption according to the needs of local communities … [and] … includes the right to protect and regulate the national agricultural and livestock production and to shield the domestic market from the dumping of agricultural surpluses and low-price imports from other countries.” We will analyze how recent Mexican films and literary texts document and represent the clash between traditional small-scale farming practices and export-oriented agroindustrial production. Some of our objectives will include: understanding how the terms “peasant” and “Indian” have been discursively linked or severed depending on the political and economic agendas of local, national and international actors; articulating what is at stake for women, particularly indigenous women in the struggle for food sovereignty and finally, exploring how current cultural activism focused on food sovereignty relates to ongoing social movements in Mexico and the rest of the world.     return to course list

SPAN 409: Practicum: Supervised Internship – TBD
No description available.    return to course list

SPAN 460: DON QUIJOTE  - Verano 
A careful reading of DON QUIJOTE in Spanish, along with discussion of major critical topics and of the book's place and importance in literary history. Attention is also given to the book's relation to the historical background of Imperial Spain.     return to course list

SPAN490: 20^th Century Chilean Literature - Garcia-Caro
This seminar explores the often ambivalent attitudes toward the nation and its traditions in Chilean writing throughout the Twentieth Century. Patria and pueblo are two concepts that could be used to characterize the two ideological camps of the Chilean political spectrum. Throughout the 20th Century, Chilean writers have struggled with the concept of nation and the social fractures of the patria. Students will be exposed to a selection of texts ranging from the early naturalist short-story writers of the turn of the century, Baldomero Lillo, Huidobro’s avant-garde poetics of creacionismo in Altazor o el viaje en paracaídas (1919), Neruda’s Canto General (1950), Parra’s antipoemas, and Donoso’s critique of patriarchal identity in El lugar sin límites (1965). A second part of the course will devote particular attention to the national crisis caused by neo-Fascism during and after the 1973 coup, when the opposition of nation versus people came fully to the foreground. We will look at issues such as the failed revolution, exile, and the search for restitution, and the ways in which contemporary writers Diamela Eltit, Por la patria (1986), Ariel Dorfman, La muerte y la doncella (1991), and Roberto Bolaño, Estrella distante (1996) have come to terms with the trauma of the dictatorship and its enforced gender and national identities.     return to course list

Spanish 607: Classics of Medieval Castilian Literature--Wacks
In this class we will read a number of the classical texts of medieval Castilian literature, all of which are represented on the reading list for the MA exam. Works will include the anonymous Cantar de Mío Cid, Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagros de Nuestra Señora, Alfonso X’s Estoria de España, Juan Manuel’s Conde Lucanor, Juan Ruiz’s Libro de buen amor, the Romancero viejo, Fernando de Rojas’ Celestina, and Garci Rodríguez Montalvo’s Amadís de Gaula. In addition to primary texts, students will read secondary texts to situate the works in their historical and theoretical contexts.     return to course list

WINTER 2010

Winter 2010

SPAN 317: Survey of Peninsular Spanish Literature – DiGiovanni
Introduction to major themes and ideas from 1800 to the present through the reading of representative texts.     return to course list

SPAN 318: Survey of Spanish American Literature – Gladhart
Introduction to main currents and literary works in the colonial Spanish American period from a historical perspective. Critical readings of selected texts from colonial times.     return to course list

SPAN 319: Introduction to Latin American Literature - Taylor
Estudiaremos una selección de textos de la literatura hispanoamericana desde fines del siglo XIX hasta principios del siglo XXI. Proponemos que en América Latina las expresiones literarias modernas surgen en relación a los complejos conflictos sociohistóricas particulares a esta constelación de regiones geográficas. Al enfocarnos en distintos periodos y movimientos literarios, nos enfrentamos con la correspondencia inexacta entre la historia literaria latinoamericana y la de Europa o de los Estados Unidos. Veremos que los conceptos básicos de la historiografía literaria que tienen su orígen en Europa (por ejemplo, el romanticismo, el realismo, el naturalismo, el modernismo, el surrealismo, la vanguardia, la postmodernidad), cobran nuevo sentido y encuentran manifestaciones variadas en el contexto de los procesos históricos de colonización, descolonización (independencia) y neocolonización en America Latina. El crítico literario Angel Rama observa que la originalidad e independencia de la literatura latinoamericana deriva de una tensión entre la voluntad de escribir en un lenguaje orientado hacia Europa por un lado y la voluntad de forjar un lenguaje literario capáz de comunicar la realidad mestiza, indígena y afrodescendiente de las Américas por otro. Afirma que lo que le da su sello único a la literatura en América Latina es el equilibrio volátil entre estas tendencies opuestas. Algunos temas y conceptos útiles a nuestro estudio de la literatura latinoamericana “post-colonial” incluirán: la relación entre la producción literaria y la formación nacional; la idea del “canon” literario, su formación y desconstrucción; las relaciones entre el compromiso social y los imperativos estéticos; la articulación de las identidades regionales, nacionales, étnicas, de género sexual, de sexualidades y de clase. Finalmente, examinaremos la relacion entre las expresiones literarias como el testimonio y las literaturas indígenas y afrolatinoamericanas contemporáneas y los movimientos políticos y formaciones sociales de finales del siglo XX y principios del XXI.     return to course list

SPAN 320: Intensive Spanish Grammar Review – TBA
Review and development of the more complex aspects of Spanish grammar with special attention to idiomatic usage.    return to course list

SPAN 328: Hispanic Literature in the United States – Triana
Introduction to Hispanic literature written in the United States. Close reading and discussion of selected texts by Hispanic authors. Emphasis on literary trends and themes.     return to course list

SPAN 330: Introduction to Poetry-- Enjuto Rangel
En este curso estudiaremos la poesía en múltiples épocas y países, desde poemas náhuas y jarchas medievales hasta poemas barrocos, románticos y vanguardistas en España y América Latina. Estudiaremos cómo los textos literarios dialogan con sus contextos históricos y culturales. Nuestras discusiones también se concentrarán en el análisis formal y detallado de los poemas. En el transcurso del trimestre trabajaremos para lograr escribir ensayos bien estructurados y con lecturas críticas originales.     return to course list

SPAN 331: Introduction to Spanish Theater – Powell
Explores important aspects of Spanish theater. Reading plays from different periods of Spanish and Spanish American literature. Emphasizes formal aspects and critical reading.     return to course list

SPAN 407: Theater and Immigration-- Gladhart
This course will focus on Latin American plays that treat migration--both into and out of Latin America--from the early 20th through the early 21st century. Plays from Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and the U.S. will allow us to discuss the theatrical representation of migration in the theaters of both "sending" and "receiving" countries. The course will be formatted as a workshop, one that will combine intensive reading of plays with performance and critical writing. Students will perform a short scene from one of the plays studied and write a substantial critical paper. The course will be divided roughly in thirds: the first third of the quarter we will focus on reading plays and choosing those texts to be performed and/or studied further; the second third of the course will focus on critical readings of the plays, incorporating theories of performance, immigration, and representation. The final third of the quarter will be devoted to polishing the performances of selected scenes and revising final papers. Playwrights studied may include Roberto Cossa, Hugo Salcedo, Griselda Gambaro, Sabina Berman, and Artístides Vargas.   The course will be conducted in Spanish, though a few readings may be in English or a combination of English and Spanish.     return to course list

SPAN 407: Seminar: Novelista, Rosa Montero-- May
This seminar will be an in-depth examination of two novels by Rosa Montero, a foremost journalist and popular author whose writing career began around the time of dictator Francisco Franco’s death (1975) and continues richly to the present. Our analysis of her works will reflect the dynamic socio-historical context of contemporary Spain.     return to course list 

SPAN 452: Early Modern Hispanic Lyric Poetry (Spain and its colonies)-- Powell
This class investigates how the power and significance of lyric poetry grew and flourished in the early modern Hispanic world (“Renaissance” and “Baroque”, Spain and Latin America). We read cross-gender and cross-genre: that is, we will emphasize the ways that women poets “spoke” (or sang) out in poetic voice, while also reading the canonical male poets. In the context of traditions like petrarchism, courtly love, the querelle des femes (or debate on women), mystical poetry, the elegy, the self-portrait poem, and the poem of philosophical meditation, is lyric a male-dominated discourse? If so, how; and if not, what is it rather? To address these questions, we also read a variety of poetic forms and themes that circulated widely in the period.     return to course list

SPRING 2010

SPAN 407: Spain and Islam--Wacks
Spain’s relationship with Islam is extremely important to the development of Spanish and Hispanic culture. Much of we think of as typically “Spanish” has its roots in Islam and in the tension between Christianity and Islam that came to define Spain. For centuries, the Iberian Peninsula (today Spain and Portugal) was a Muslim country, called al-Andalus, where a uniquely sophisticated and luxurious culture flourished when the rest of Europe was living in relative poverty and ignorance. Although the Muslim political presence in Spain came to an end in 1492 with the defeat of the Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, the last Muslims did not leave Spain until 1614.
Today, massive immigration from North Africa has reintroduced Islam to Spain, and the future of the country will be determined in part by how modern Spaniards choose to deal with the challenges of religious and ethnic plurality this time around. In this course we will learn about the development of Islamic culture in Spain, the transition to Christian political dominance and eventual elimination of Islam, and the current debate in Spain over North African immigration. Texts will include selections of medieval Hispano-Arabic poetry and prose, selections from the aljamiado literature of the Moriscos, the last Spanish Muslims (1500-1600s), a scholarly essay on the history of Arabic studies in Spain, contemporary Spanish fiction on the theme of African immigration, and contemporary essays on both historical and current questions of the integration of Islam and Muslims in Spanish society.     return to course list